Dedicated in 1976 to celebrate the Bicentennial, Constitution Gardens on the National Mall is a rolling landscape around a small lake. The 50-acre park-like setting is between the World War II
 Memorial (3) and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (2). The Lincoln Memorial (1) is at left.

This is the first redesign of the National Mall's Constitution Gardens in nearly 40 years. The landscape design offers dramatic topography and tranquil nature scenes. A 160-foot-long pavilion atop an elevated plaza will anchor the space and offer views down to the lake and gardens.
Renderings courtesy of PWP Landscape Architects and
ROGERS PARTNERS Architects+Urban Designers

Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers and PWP Landscape Architecture announce their co-redesign of the Constitution Gardens on the National Mall has received unanimous approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and The National Capital Planning Commission. Approval from both agencies is required for the design to move forward. Phase one of the project will focus on the northeast corner and northern edge of the site, and will establish a visual presence of the renewed Constitution Gardens along Constitution Avenue. The client for the project is the National Park Service, in partnership with the Trust for the National Mall.

New York-based Rogers Partners and California-based PWP won the project in 2012 through a national competition. The redesign of the 50-acre park is slatedfor design and construction over the next several years, with phase one of the project completed in 2016.

Constitution Gardens' informal gardens and forests contrast with the memorials and monuments on the National Mall. Until the end of the 19th century, the parkland was below the Potomac River. Architect Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and landscape architect Dan Kiley designed the gardens.

The park will feature a triangulated, 160-foot-long cantilevered pavilion that sits on a plaza 20 feet above the lake and gardens. There will be a glass-walled restaurant on the north side, and a grand staircase on the south side that leads down to the lake.

The design is meant to accommodate ice-skating, picnics on tree-shaded lawns and year-round special events on the pavilion plaza. The design adds an 18-inch retaining wall along Constitution Avenue to create a visual and physical separation from the city, and a wetland along the lake's perimeter. The historic lockkeeper's house will be rehabilitated and relocated.